CoreOS nabs $8 mln Series A

CoreOS said Monday that it has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the round with participation from return backers Sequoia Capital and Fuel Capital. CoreOS is a Linux operating system for server deployments.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — CoreOS, a Linux operating system for massive server deployments, today announced its $8 million Series A funding round as well as the release of CoreOS Managed Linux, which will provide businesses with optional support subscriptions. Starting today, CoreOS will provide a service level for companies looking to achieve the benefits of CoreOS with the peace of mind of commercial support. CoreOS Managed Linux is delivered as an OS as a Service, meaning companies will receive a continuous stream of updates and patches, eliminating the need for major OS migrations every few years.

“This is a big day for us. Not only are we announcing funding from one of the top Silicon Valley venture capital firms, we also have worked hard to deliver Managed Linux” said Alex Polvi, founder and CEO of CoreOS. “Businesses today can begin to think of CoreOS as an extension of their OS team, and for enterprise Linux customers this is the last migration they will ever need.”
CoreOS closed an $8 million Series A funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with follow-on investments from existing investors Sequoia Capital and Fuel Capital. The funding will go towards growing the company, product development, and managing the increasing global interest in CoreOS.

“The technology behind CoreOS is game-changing,” said Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers general partner, Mike Abbott. “CoreOS is solving infrastructure problems that have plagued the space for years with an operating system that not only automatically updates and patches servers with the latest software, but also provides less downtime, furthering the security and resilience of internet architecture.”

The new Managed Linux service level is available for purchase through a monthly subscription and provides:
Availability on platforms including Bare Metal, Amazon, Google, and Rackspace, among others;
Docker 1.0 — the container runtime for application packaging;
CoreUpdate – a hosted dashboard for full control of rolling updates; and
FastPatch – stress-free patches and updates.

“Docker is leading the way in the containerized data center and is excited to see such great innovation in the space,” said Solomon Hykes, CTO and founder of Docker. “CoreOS is providing an innovative approach to running Docker on an exceptionally lightweight, easy-to-update, minimal OS, and we can’t wait to see what is in store for the company in the future.”

“We work with developers around the world and we haven’t seen such excitement for a technology like CoreOS in a long time,” said Greg Warden, Head of Engineering Services at Atlassian. “Atlassian is dedicated to implementing a resilient and stable infrastructure, as our customers depend on us to make their software development process run efficiently. We believe CoreOS has emerged as a top company to watch in next-generation infrastructure.”

About CoreOS
CoreOS is a new Linux OS that has been re-architected to provide the foundation of warehouse scale computing. The strategies and architectures that influence CoreOS allow companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter to run their services at scale with high resilience. CoreOS runs on your existing hardware and on cloud providers. Learn more at www.coreos.com or follow CoreOS on Twitter @coreoslinux.

About KPCB
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) partners with the brightest entrepreneurs to turn disruptive ideas into world-changing businesses. The firm has helped build pioneering companies like Amazon, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, Nest, Netscape, and Twitter. KPCB offers entrepreneurs years of operating experience, puts them at the center of a vast and influential network, and accelerates their success through expertise and support in recruiting, product design and delivery, business development, strategic partnerships and brand building. KPCB invests in all stages from seed and incubation to growth companies and operates from offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Shanghai and Beijing. For more information, visit www.kpcb.com and follow us @kpcb.